A plan of 1805 (Watson 27/13) shows a proposed realignment of Heaton/Lawson’s Main Waggonway serving the pits of Heaton Main Colliery to avoid Lawson’s Main whilst retaining its outlet at St Anthony’s. It is likely that this route was taken up once Lawson’s Main Waggonway (HER 15339) closed in 1811 following the flooding and closure of Lawson’s Main Colliery. All waggonways to St. Anthony's were taken up after it was abandoned in December 1821.

c.1785-1811. This waggonway ran south from Lawson’s Main Colliery in Byker to staiths at St Anthony’s on the River Tyne. There were many dispersed pits in Byker over the first three quarters of the 18th century (shown on maps in Turnbull 2009, 9, 108) but with only limited evidence for the waggonway system serving them. Some pits must have sent their coal along a waggonway running east, probably to staiths just south of Wallsend in Walker (route 104) and others to St Peter’s to the south (routes 34 and 94). These earlier routes were replaced by this waggonway certainly by the mid 1780s as Lawson’s Main Colliery was opened up. From the 1790s, the line was linked with Heaton Waggonway (routes 98, 100 and 114), becoming a through route for coal from Heaton Main Colliery as well as Lawson’s Main. This is shown on Casson’s map of 1801 and in more detail on Watson 27/13 of 1805. The combined waggonway became what was probably the first iron railway in the north of England when its wooden ways were replaced by cast iron rails and stone sleepers in 1797. Part of the line also functioned as an inclined plane. Lawson’s Main Colliery was flooded out in 1811 and abandoned. The waggonway was closed in the same year and its components sold off (Turnbull 2009, 54-5). Heaton coal was then re-routed on a more direct and independent line to the east (route 33). All waggonways to St. Anthony's were taken up after it was abandoned in December 1821. A section of this waggonway was archaeologically excavated at Lancefield Avenue by Pre-Construct Archaeology in 2011. The colliery waggonway ran on a NW-SE alignment across Area B. The majority of the track had been truncated by later landscaping activity, and the waggonway survived largely as a pair of parallel trackside ditches filled with coal waste. Parts of four poorly preserved timber sleeper impressions were recorded, with tentative evidence of associated wooden dowels for securing rails.

The High Main Coal Seam outcropped towards the western edge of Heaton, dipping eastwards into the Tyne Basin. Early extraction of this coal will have occurred along its exposure in the deeply incised valley of the Ouseburn by quarrying and drifting. As more easily worked areas were exhausted, pursuit of the seam was continued by the sinking of fairly shallow pits above the valley edge and as far east as the pumping technology of the day allowed. This probably began around the mid 1720s following the 1717 leasing of the mineral rights of the western part of Heaton Royalty from the Mitford family to William Cotesworth and George Liddell, the founding partners of the Grand Allies. Two areas of mining have been identified over this period (Turnbull 2009, 32-34); one to the south, perhaps already worked by the Mitfords’ known as Byker Colliery, and one to the north known as Heaton Banks above the eastern slope of the Ouseburn.
A map of Heaton Banks Colliery, probably from the mid 18th century (Turnbull 2009, 34) shows 18 pits as well as four pumping engines. What is not shown is the waggonways which ran to the pits. It is certain, however, that they existed and will have formed a branching pattern as was common at this time elsewhere. A map of the adjacent Walker Estate of 1745 by Isaac Thompson shows the southern portion of the waggonway to these Heaton pits running from staiths at Wincomblee to the west (Hope-Dodds 1930, 436). The colliery closed in 1745, flooded out and superseded by Longbenton West Colliery. A waggonway is also shown on Thompson’s 1745 map of Walker Estate running north towards this new colliery (route 31).

This waggonway was opened in 1776. It ran south from Millbank Pit (1170) to join the Longbenton East Waggonway (HER 1167) just to the north of the village of Willington. A sales plan of the Willington Estate in 1818 (Bell Papers) shows the line had closed by that date and was operating as a bridle road (now Middle Engine Lane). The plan also shows and names two disused pits along the course of the line, the Venture and Engine pits.

This short length of waggonway linked Bigge Pit (HER 1163) to the New Willington Waggonway (HER 1164) avoiding a circuitous route via Bewick Pit. It was opened in 1829.

This waggonway ran from Collingwood (or Burdon) Main Pit to staiths at North Shields. Parts of the abandoned Chirton Colliery were opened up in 1811 to re-work the High Main Seam. At the same time, Collingwood Main Pit was sunk towards the south-west end of the colliery and a waggonway constructed from it to staiths at North Shields. These were in the same location as those of the earlier Chirton Waggonway. They are shown on Watson 21/21, branching and running to two spouts beyond a coal yard. The staiths are also shown on Wood’s 1827 plan of North Shields in a different arrangement. The rest of the line is shown on Watson 21/15. Later, a branch-line was run to Collingwood Main Waggonway from Hopewell Pit to the north.

This waggonway extended the line of Chirton Waggonway (route 3) to the north-west. Chirton Colliery was closed at least temporarily by 1777 and the area of mining extended to the north-west into the Balkwell Farm estate of Sir Ralph Milbank bordering Shiremoor (Turnbull 2012, 15 route 9A). A plan of the estate of 1784 (Watson 21/4) shows the waggonway extending across the farm with its main line running to a pit in Rye Hill Field; a long branch to an unnamed pit in North Barras Field; and a second branch to two pits in Low Trench Field. The waggonway is not shown on either Gibson’s (1787) or Casson’s (1801) maps of the Tyne and may have closed by 1787.

In the early eighteenth century Chirton Colliery, working the High Main Seam, was let to John Rogers and Henry Hudson, owners of the adjacent Whitley Colliery (Turnbull 2012, 13 route 9). In 1754, the colliery was leased to a consortium led by a coal buyer, Edmund Shallet and the principal landowners, Edward Collingwood and Hylton Lawson. By 1769, Shallet’s share had been bought up by John Liddell. In 1773, the colliery sent out 10,000 chaldrons, making it one of the North-East’s main collieries but seems to have closed by 1777. New workings to the north-west (Balkwell Farm) were opened subsequently.

A plan of 1769 (Watson 21/6), shows the area of coal extraction at Chirton Colliery superimposed with the route of Chirton Waggonway. The main line ran from a staith on the Tyne at North Shields to the Chirton and Turnpike Pits with two branch lines, one running north-west to Hopewell and Chance Pits and the other to the north-east to Rose Pit. The line was extended to the north-west to Balkwell Farm post 1777.

This branching waggonway ran from Cullercoats to coal pits at Whitley Park and forked to the north-west to pits over the Monkseaton Road. Warn (76, 47 route 4) says it was opened by 1621 or 1677 (the earlier date is unlikely) and closed between 1706 and 1772. Turnbull says it had opened by 1676 and was closed by 1724. The line was set up by a consortium of businessmen led by Newcastle merchant John Rogers who owned mines in the Whitley and Monkseaton area (Turnbull 2012, 11 route 7). There is no contemporary map source, but the course of the abandoned waggonway was drawn and described in the notebook of Matthias Dunn (Forster 1/13/63) in the 1800s. Although the full length of the western branch is not shown on Dunn’s sketch it probably ran to coal pits exploiting the relatively shallow Yard Seam further to the north-west. The coal was used for heating salt pans at Cullercoats and some exported.

C17 font. Listed in the churchwarden's accounts in 1675: "Imprimis, pd. Mr Trolopp for ye font, £3 10s od…. Pd in pt for ye cover, £2 os od". And in 1676 "to Mr. Trolopp £2 os od, to Nicholson, £1 12s 5d". And in 1677 "June 29-77 for leding ye font 1s". Mr Trolopp was a master mason from York, later Gateshead, who built the Exchange (Guildhall) at Newcastle, Capheaton and Netherwitton Halls and the New Fort in Holy Island. The font at South Shields is similar to that at Pittington. Both have convex fluted bowls, slender stems (the South Shields example is twisted) and both have a cap between the shaft and bowl, decorated with foliage. In 1876 the font was ejected from the church into the churchyard. After some time it was brought back into the church and fixed into the floor in the south-west angle of the nave. Dimensions: diameter of bowl 2 feet 4 inches, total height 3 feet 8 inches. Pevsner - baluster type font : gadrooned bowl on a twisted column of 1675 by Robert Trollope.